Kansas historic tax credits · 40% state · 20% federal · no cap

Kansas may be the
best place in America
to reuse a historic building

Most owners still think the Kansas credit is what it was in 2024. It is not. Since April 2025 qualifying commercial rehabilitations earn 40% of qualified costs — in the big cities and the small towns alike — with no statewide cap and no allocation round to wait for.

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Kansas pays 40%.
No cap. No queue.

In April 2025 Kansas restructured its historic rehabilitation credit, and most owners still have not caught up. For qualifying commercial rehabilitations the state now pays 40% of qualified expenditures — in Wichita and Topeka the same as in a town of four thousand. Stacked with the 20% federal credit, that is 60% of qualified costs, with no statewide cap to wait in line for.

40% of qualified costs

$50,000 or more

Rehabilitations of $50,000 or more in cities over 50,000 people earn 40%. Cities, townships and unincorporated areas of 50,000 or under earn 40% at any qualifying size. Nonprofit-owned structures also earn 40%.

No statewide cap

No allocation round

Most state programs cap annual credits and make projects compete for an allocation. Kansas does not. If the building and the work qualify, the credit is there — which removes the single biggest timing risk from your capital stack.

No per-project cap

Scale does not penalise you

A $40MM rehabilitation earns the same percentage as a $400,000 one. Several states quietly cap the credit per project, which is how a large deal discovers late that the stack it underwrote does not exist.

Transferable

Ten-year carryforward

The credit can be sold, so you do not need Kansas tax appetite to monetise it, and unused credit carries forward ten years. For an out-of-state owner or a fund, this is the difference between a usable credit and a theoretical one.

Nonprofits qualify

40%

The federal credit effectively excludes nonprofit owners. Kansas does not. For a church, a school, a foundation or a community development corporation holding a historic building, this is frequently the whole deal.

What still has to be true

The Standards

Listed on the National Register, contributing to a listed district, or eligible — and the work has to meet the Secretary of the Interior's Standards. If designation is missing, that is a step we handle, not a reason to stop.

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What might the credits be worth?

Kansas · preliminary estimate

Estimated qualified basis—
Federal credit — 20%—
Kansas credit — 40%—
Combined credit—

Rough arithmetic, not an opinion. Qualified rehabilitation expenditure excludes acquisition, site work and furnishings, and the 40% Kansas tier applies to qualifying commercial rehabilitations of $50,000 or more. Credits are also sold at a discount, so cash proceeds land below face. Send us the address and we will run the real number against the real building.

The Wonder Shops and Flats, a historic factory conversion
The Dairy Apartments, a Streamline Moderne dairy plant returned to service
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Where the
rest comes from

Sixty percent of qualified costs is a large number and still not a capital stack. These are the layers that usually sit underneath it on a Kansas deal.

Rural Opportunity Funds

30% basis step-up

Opportunity Zone rules now carry a rural fund class with triple the standard step-up, and the rural substantial improvement test dropped from 100% of basis to 50%. On a small-town Kansas rehabilitation that change is what lets a proportionate scope qualify without overbuilding it to hit a number.

New Markets Tax Credits

Mixed-use only

Strong on larger commercial work. The operating entity cannot draw 80% or more of its income from residential rental, so a straight apartment conversion will not qualify — commercial square footage is what makes it eligible.

Housing credits

Where rents are restricted

Federal housing credits twin with historic where the building and the rent structure both allow it. Kansas narrowed its own state housing credit, so we structure these deals on the federal program and the 40% historic credit rather than assuming both.

Local

Abatement · IRB · CID

Abatement, industrial revenue bonds and community improvement districts are negotiated city by city. Individually modest, and often the last few points that make a deal close.

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Towns where
this works

The 40% tier applies statewide, which makes small-city Kansas unusually attractive right now — the buildings are cheap, the credit is deep, and almost nobody is competing for them.

Wichita · Topeka · Kansas City

Over 50,000

Qualifying commercial rehabilitations of $50,000 or more earn 40%. Downtown office stock, warehouses and early-century commercial blocks.

Salina · Hutchinson · Lawrence · Leavenworth

Mid-size

Intact main streets, a real rental market, and buildings trading well below replacement cost.

Atchison · Fort Scott · Coffeyville · Winfield · Pittsburg

Under 50,000

40% at any qualifying size. This is where the arithmetic gets genuinely unusual.

Send us
an address

Send the address of a Kansas building. No cost, no obligation, no pitch deck.

We walk it, and inside two weeks you get what it wants to be, what that runs, and which credits it earns. If it doesn’t pencil, we say so — that answer is worth the two weeks by itself.

Send an address 816.200.0340
Somebody walked past
every one of these EXACT Architects — Kansas City

EXACT Architects
3901 Main Street, Suite 201
Kansas City, Missouri 64111
816.200.0340
office@exactarchitects.com

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